The Phantom School

My body was walking towards the school, but my mind was walking backwards. After the awkward events that happened yesterday, I wasn"t willing to go back to the school.

"Get yourself together." I told myself. I have only met most of the people in the school yesterday, and I just had to give it some time to get used to the "different" atmosphere of the school. "You can"t be suffering monday syndromes already." my internal voice tried to motivate me. It didn"t matter how I felt about it, I had to go the school. If it was going to happen in the end, I could as well try to enjoy it.

"You like being a teacher. You"ve always loved teaching." I repeated as I got past the woods and walked inside the school building once again. This time, I wasn"t late. In fact, I had arrived very early. The building was silent. I tried to remember where the teachers" room was, and kept walking. When I found the room, I opened the door and entered.

Mr. Kenan and Okan were the only people in the teachers" room. It seemed like they were discussing something. They noticed and greeted me.

"Oh, welcome back!" said Mr. Kenan, cheerfully. "You are pretty early today."

"Yeah, I couldn"t risk being late again. It is like all the bus routes are avoiding coming here on purpose. It is frusturating." I said.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." said Okan.

"How are you all dealing with this?" I asked.

"You just get used to it." he replied.

"Well, that"s good to know." I said.

The door opened and someone else entered the room. It was Sinem, a literature teacher. She put her bag on a table and yawned.

"Good morning." she said as she collapsed on a chair and closed her eyes.

"Good morning, ma"am." said Mr. Kenan, and turned to me. "She is always like that. She travels here every day from almost the other end of the city."

People were arriving at the school one by one as the time for the first lesson of the day was approaching. As I was preparing for the first lesson, Mr. Kenan approached me and whispered.

"Try to remember what I told you yesterday."

He patted me on the back and left. Soon afterwards, I left the teachers" room, trying to guess which way I had to go in the building. I could finally remember where the cla.s.sroom I was supposed to go was located.

I came to a stop in front of the cla.s.sroom"s door and grabbed the doork.n.o.b. I turned the k.n.o.b and pushed the door to open it, yet... It didn"t open. It felt like the door was stuck. In frusturation, I started shaking the door violently.

I almost had a heart attack when I heard someone chuckle just behind me. I turned around in horror.

It was a girl.

"Is it you again?" I said.

"Sorry, sorry." she said and kept smiling. "It seems like you might be having some problems with-"

"I was just... Eh... You know..." I interrupted her, but I couldn"t manage to say anything.

"No worries, it just does that sometimes." she said and smiled. She got in front of me and opened the door at the first try.

"Well, now that we opened it, you can go to your desk." I said.

"You are welcome." she replied and walked to her desk.

- - -

After the lesson, I got back to the teachers" room. In an instant, all the movement inside has stopped and everyone looked at me like I just did something terrible. I wanted to ask if I really did something wrong, but I was frozen for the moment. That short but difficult moment ended when Mr. Kenan softly pushed me inside.

"Please come in." he said. "Sit down."

"What is happening?" I asked. No one answered, but everyone gathered around me in a circle.

"We have something important to talk about." Ege said.

I looked at Mr. Kenan. He looked away from me, all around the room, and later he winked at me. It must have been the "weird behaviour" he was talking about yesterday. Invluntarily, I decided to continue the uncomfortable conversation.

"I"m listening." I said.

"Well... To begin, we want to ask you some questions about the past of the Chersonese High School."

a teacher said.

"Go on." I said.

"When you were a student in Chersonese High... How strict were the teachers?"

It certainly wasn"t a good question to ask someone who remembered nothing about his high school years. But, for the sake of not causing more interest, I couldn"t tell this to them. I had to give a regular answer, so I tried to make things up.

"I... Of course they enforced the rules, but they weren"t so strict. Most of them were very nice people." I answered.

"I see... Do you remember your graduation?" I was asked.

I could make something up for the previous question, but it was not that easy for this one.

"Not really." I said.

"Huh? Really?" Ege said. I was scared of saying something wrong and accidentally making people more curious about the subject.

"Well, I had gotten sick that day, so I couldn"t really pay attention to those stuff." I said.

"That"s most unfortunate." Sinem replied.

"Do you know what happened to your friends after they have graduated? Are you still in contact with them?" Ege asked.

"No." I said.

"No one?"

"No one."

"Do you remember doing any activities in the building after school hours?"

This was a very specific question. Just when I was about to answer, Mr. Kenan coughed loudly. I took the hint. When I looked at him, he shook his head.

"No." I answered. "Why are you questioning me?" I finally had the courage to ask.

"Well... Sorry about it, but we have reasons. Please forgive us, you will understand with time." Ege replied.

"Let"s get to the main subject." Sinem suggested.

"Oh, of course." Ege said and began talking. "There is a very important and specific rule in this school which has been enforced since before you were a student here."

"Which is?"

"After the final lesson of the day ends, no one stays in the building, and people need to get out as soon as possible. So, as the teachers; we, including you, won"t let any students do activities after school hours."

"And... Why exactly is that?" I asked.

"That... is the part we are uncomfortable with telling you right now. We will tell you though, eventually. But, until that time, please forgive us for it." Ege said.

Sinem coughed lightly, visibly trying to imply something to Ege.

"Oh, and..." Ege continued. "Only the teachers know about this. You can not tell this to any of the students. Again, that"s for reasons we can"t explain right now; but please believe me when I say that it is a matter of life and death."

I looked around without saying anything.

"Is that understood? Do you have any questions?" asked Ege. I looked at Mr. Kenan. He shook his head again.

"I understand, even though I"m not satisfied with the explanation." I said.

"It is okay, then. I apologise for the awkward atmosphere we"ve created." Ege said. The crowd around me started to disperse. Mr. Kenan approached me.

"Find me after the final lesson, in front of the main exit." he whispered.